Former Newcastle coach Mark Lawrenson isn’t worried too much about Chris Hughton’s Brighton getting relegated this season – but he is worried about Newcastle.

That’s the rather surprising opinion of the BBC pundit and it all centers around the takeover, which has introduced too much uncertainty at the club with the January transfer window about to open.

Mike Ashley is out of the country and he seems to have done little in the last few weeks to sell the club and there seems to be a deadlock in the negotiations.

The more this uncertainty goes on with no deal announced, the more it will affect Newcastle in their attempts to avoid relegation.

Rafa Benitez – must manage difficult situation this January

Rafa Benitez is handling all of this very well – but Lawrenson wonders where the manager will be getting his transfer funds from next month.

Are they from Mike Ashley (Newcastle’s money) or Amanda Staveley of PCP Capital Partners group – as a loan to the club – or both?

Here’s what Mark has explained are the problems at the Tyneside club at the moment:

“Newcastle were very defensive against Manchester City on Wednesday night, even when they went 1-0 down, but Rafael Benitez’s aim was for his team to try to stay in the game until the end.”

“And it almost worked because they nearly nicked a point.”

“There will be a very different feeling about this game, against another promoted club – the Magpies have to try to win this one.”

“Brighton lost at Chelsea on Boxing Day but they had taken four points from their previous two matches, and this will be another fixture that their boss Chris Hughton will have earmarked as one to get something out of.”

“The Seagulls are only three points above Newcastle in the table but I just don’t see Hughton’s side getting relegated – I never really have.”

“It is different with Newcastle, and I am a little bit worried for them.” “The takeover of the club is turning into a long-running saga.”

“Ad they need to bring in new players in January. They have Benitez as manager, which is a huge positive, but who is he talking to about potential signings?”

“Is it the current regime or the new people? It is a very difficult situation for them.”

Most fans seem confident we can get our first home win since back on October 21st tomorrow – we’ve lost the last 5 home games.

Ed seems to know when I’m about to post a comment – his bus pulls away at a rate of knots!

Anyway, repost

Frank pingles come sock

From my limited experience, the Arab doesn’t like having the pi$$ taken out of the. They’re a proud people and if we’re looking at high profile guys like Mansour, they’ll not be ripped.off by Ashley or anyone else. It’s called savng face ( as Dubai explained a few days ago) and if Ashley’s trying to screw or con our potential buyer, they’ll go out of their way to beat the greedy git at his own game.

On transfers, this reporting that Rafa doesn’t know what transfer budget he’s got for January, will not help any recruitment to a club that’ll appear to be badly run, devoid of any ambition and a cert for relegation. Sadly, I think it’s true that Rafa’s in the dark and again, Ashley’s diving with relegation – for the third time in eleven years!!

On the subject of Brighton, I think that fans expect more than sitting back at SJP and suspect that Rafa’d set up to go at them as we did at West Ham. They [Brighton] don’t like it up ’em you know, they don’t like it up ’em! Maybe those going to the match should take a Marks and Spencer bag – to bring the goals home… hopefully!!

I can see us playing a more aggressive game against the Seagulls on Saturday. The defence will remain as it was, Yedlin, Lascelles, Clark and Dummet. Midfield starters will probably be Shelvey and Merino with Ritchie, Perez and Atsu behind lone striker Gayle. That should be enough to send Hughton’s boys back to the south coast with a flea in their ear.

Can we not have a season without drama and uncertainties for once. I can’t understand why it’s so hard to sell a club like Nufc I would have thought people would have been lining up around the block to buy it even the likes of villa have been taken over wtf. All I want to see is my club do well return back to the glory day of the entertainment we use to have in the les Ferdinand and Alan shearer day and asprilla . Hurry up and sell the club mike your just digging the whole deeper and deeper or sinking the ship deeper into the bottom of the ocean. We need to be great again great again

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health update

My latest bone scans and CAT scans were completed this week and I met with my oncologist Dr. Dhruva to go over the results.

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and hasn't spread over the last six months.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

There is no cure for stage 4 cancer - but there are treatments which attempt to prolong life.

I am upbeat with the results and remain in awe of the doctors and nurses at the Rex Cancer Center here in Raleigh, North Carolina

It's truly humbling to see how inspiring they are with their patients.

Ed Harrison

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